Report: corporate giving tied to business growth

Of the 401 people questioned by the University of Massachusetts Poll last month, 63 percent said they would be influenced to some extent to patronize a company that supported a nonprofit organization that those respondents considered important.

"If I'm a perfume seller, now I'm looking at the arts and saying, it's not only just the right thing to do, but it also helps me sell my product,"' said Louis DiNatale, who directed the telephone poll at the University of Massachusetts' McCormack Institute of Public Affairs. "The foundations have got to get out of the purely good guy giving pool and they've got to drive the argument that partnerships between nonprofits and corporations help a corporation's bottom line. If you can make that case, you can start this argument again and maybe you can get more money."

In addition, more than three-quarters of the respondents told DiNatale's staff that they want to live where corporations support arts and cultural organizations.

The Boston Foundation commissioned the poll as part of the ongoing work of the nonprofit's Cultural Task Force to gain a better understanding of donors in Massachusetts.

"This will serve as a good benchmark," said Terry Lane, the Boston Foundation's vice president for program. "There's more connection between corporate support for nonprofits and people's individual points of view than I would have expected."

Earlier this year, the Boston Foundation released a study showing that even though local arts organizations receive relatively little money from the government, Boston's cultural community grew by 73 percent between 1992 and 1999. In February, the Boston Foundation assigned a group of local leaders led by David Ellis, president emeritus of the Museum of Science, to strategize how those cultural organizations can raise more money.

Geoff Edgers can be reached at gedgers@globe.com